


The Mark of Gideon: Be Fruitful and Multiply

by Cheree_Cargill



Series: Glimpses of a Life [64]
Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 15:21:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15415875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheree_Cargill/pseuds/Cheree_Cargill
Summary: After the mission to Gideon, Spock ponders how that world became so overpopulated and compares it to  Vulcan.  In doing so, he also muses on his own future.





	The Mark of Gideon: Be Fruitful and Multiply

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: The Star Trek characters are the property of Paramount Studios, Inc. The story contents are the creation and property of Cheree Cargill and is copyright (c) 2018 by Cheree Cargill. This story is Rated PG.

_Stardate:_ _5425._ _6._ _First Officer Spock recording._

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that _Homo sapiens terranensis_ is surely the most libidinous species to be found in our sector of the galaxy and that only tribbles may surpass them in their prodigious breeding ability. Their DNA allows them to mate and reproduce with any humanoid race that will allow it – Vulcans, Klingons, Betazeds, Romulans, and untold variations and mutations of Humans themselves. I hesitate to speak negatively about the Captain, but at times I privately wonder how many cross-species children he has fathered over the years and of which he is unaware. But I will say no more on that!

I breech this subject here in my personal log because we are twenty-eight hours out after our mission to Gideon, a world so overpopulated that it boggles the mind, especially for a Vulcan whose people only reproduce on an average of every seven years or so. While it is not unheard of for a couple to conceive a child outside of _pon farr_ , it is not the rule. The mating drive in the male engenders ovulation in the female and evolution has assured that the opportunity is not biologically missed for a child to result. Our population is thus low but steady and our world is not overtaxed of its resources.

Not so Gideon which was settled by an ultra-conservative Terran Christian sect whose beliefs not only forbade any sort of birth control whatsoever, but also demanded that they "be fruitful and multiply", a commandment from their religious text. It was the goal of every woman to give birth to between 15 and 20 children in her sexually productive lifespan, but as many more as she could manage. Moreover, marriages were polygamous and thus a man might have an average of five wives, all producing children as quickly as they could physically do so. Females were married very young, usually in their early teens, as soon as they were able to produce children. Medical procedures were advanced enough that there was a low infant mortality rate. In addition, the world they settled was remarkably free of pathogens and endemic diseases that would have naturally kept the population in check.

I have worked out the numbers on this. A man with five wives, each giving birth to no less than ten children, would produce at least fifty children in his lifetime – and usually many more in reality. If half of those fifty children were female, they would be married and begin to reproduce themselves about the age of fifteen, and would thus bring into life an additional 250 children! By the next generation, using the same equations, there would be 1,250 children. An entire population expanding at this rate would quickly overtax planetary resources!

Insanity! I wonder how long it will be before the entire social order of Gideon breaks down and results in total chaos if their plan to introduce Vegan choriomeningitis into their population does not succeed. It is an indisputably deadly disease and Captain Kirk only barely survived it in his early 20's. The mindset of the leaders of this planet makes my head ache! They breed and breed and breed because they have such a "reverence for life" that they refuse to use any sort of contraception, yet are willing to doom a substantial percent of their population to a quite horrible death by introducing a disease to which they have no immunity!

I must calm myself. I have strayed dangerously close to an emotional reaction. I find myself longing for Vulcan and the rational logic of our people. We understand that we must not overburden our mostly desert planet by clotting it with people who would destroy it by producing more offspring than is necessary to achieve balance. I find myself missing its red deserts and dark mountains, the graceful cities like ShiKahr and our family estate of Keldeen in the hills north of there. I would choose to raise my own children there, in its beauty and serenity.

My own children… Will I ever actually sire sons or daughters of my own? I wonder sometimes. I am young, but I am still unbonded and have perhaps five more years, if I am fortunate, before the Burning strikes me again. It seems so far away, but I have no guarantee that I will _have_ five years. Perhaps I will have more … or less. I almost feel panic rising at the thought of being caught without a bonded mate should it come upon me sooner.

Chapel. She always comes to mind when I think of such a time. Would she refuse me? If she does, to whom would I turn if I could not get back to Vulcan in time? We barely made it there before and our mission may take us so far away that there would be no hope of arrival there before I died of the madness, as I nearly did this time.

Uhura? Would she be willing to bond with me? I think not. Although we are colleagues and friends, I believe she would shy away in fear from the awful sort of obligation that would be needed to see me through the _pon farr_. There are nearly a hundred women on board, but I can think of none who would be suitable.

No, it must be Christine. She is strong and resilient and would be able to withstand the Burning. She also loves me, although I do not fully understand why. I have seen such commitment in my mother's attachment to my father. He maintains that it is logical and I begin to understand the reasons their Bond has lasted all these years. I believe he _does_ love her. Could I love Christine the same way? It is an emotion we Vulcans eschew, but there is no denying what I have witnessed first-hand between my parents.

 _Do_ I love Christine? It is true that I appreciate her immensely and have felt a deep respect for her innate qualities. There have been multiple times when she has stood by me in time of need … when I was blinded on Deneva, when I was gravely injured by the bullet wound on Neural, when she attempted to help me when the Fire drove me close to insanity… I tried to force her away that time, but she refused to go. She was not daunted by my seeming rejection of her. Does she realize how close I came to taking her when she came back to my cabin to check on me? How near the thread of sanity came to breaking?

She is loyal and stubborn and brave. She is brilliant and resourceful and adaptable. She is everything T'Pring was not. I saw her as I had never seen her before when my consciousness was placed in her mind by Sargon. I believe we actually did develop a low level bond at that time. Is that why I naturally think of her as a mate? Why I will admit to wanting only her?

But I am getting too far ahead of myself. I will broach the subject with her when the time is opportune. Not just Bonding, but very tentatively that she be the mother of my children. But not now, of course. We still have two years left on our mission and I am still her superior officer. It would not be proper. Nevertheless, we could begin to lay the groundwork. Take one step at a time together.

It terrifies me, both the idea of the bond and the idea that she could refuse me. However, as Dr. McCoy would say, I am putting the conveyance before the equine. It is late and I must finish my report on Gideon before I retire. Tomorrow is soon enough to talk with Miss Chapel and introduce the subject. Or the next day or the next.

The vision will not go away, however, there in the recesses of my mind. I can imagine her at my side and our children around us, walking in the red sands of home, and she is smiling up at me in contentment. It is a … pleasing thought.

THE END

 


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